in April of 2017 I converted my garage into a home bike shop, which means it’ll be two
years old this Spring.
Today, I’ll take you on a tour of the hack shack, give you a run down on what’s working,
and what I might have done differently.
Before we get into any of that we’re gonna do a small project, to address this pile of
shoes in the corner.
Some of these belong to my wife and I, while others belong to our friends.
Phil, these look like yours.
Pinterest to the rescue.
My wife was kind enough to give me a quick and easy solution that she found on Pinterest.
Just cut up a bunch of PVC, paint it, and bam.
You’ve got a shoe rack, right?
It turns out you can only get 10” PVC at a plumbing distributor, and you need buy a
minimum of 20 feet of it.
That means it’s expensive, and I’m going to have a lot left over for future projects.
It’s also challenging to cut straight with the kind of tools you would expect a normal
homeowner to have.
In the end I made a little jig out of a ruler and a marker to draw a line around it, and
used a circular saw to cut it as straight as possible.
The precision eroded a bit with each piece, as I’d measure the next cut against an increasingly
jagged end.
But it was close enough for a shoe rack.
After a day of hauling, measuring, cutting, cleaning, finishing, and painting a bunch
of sewer pipe, I finally got to making something pinteresty.
These sheet metal screws ended up being perfect, and once all the pieces started coming together,
I felt a little better about embarking on this project.
Clearly I could have bought something for a lot less at Ikea, or just built something
out of wood for like $10, but this.
Archaeologists will find this thousands of years from now and wonder why someone went
through so much trouble, for a shoe rack.
As for the rest of the crap corner, I tidied it up with some helmetor mounts.
I also moved the ramp mount up to make way for a skateboard rack, which cost me $3 in
the bathroom section of my local hardware store.
And with that, the hack shack is just a little more functional, organized, and cool looking.
I’ve done a lot of things to stay organized here, like using containers for fasteners,
miscellaneous bike parts, and even GoPro accessories.
Organization is the art of finding a home for everything, but it’s always a work in
progress.
I added this tool chest in the middle of the shop for extra storage, and in addition to
helping me stay organized it has become a great place to film things.
I was happy to find that it came with a power strip featuring USB ports on the side, but
they turned out to be hot garbage.
Same goes for this cheap bench vice.
Had I known this would become the most used tool in my entire shop, I would have sprung
for a better one.
Sure it clamps stuff down, just not with any degree of precision.
As for this cheap bench grinder, I can’t say that it’s held me back in any way.
Speaking of stuff on my work bench, a few of you have spotted this enormous brass nut.
My dad acquired this thing probably 20 years ago while working in demolition.
It weighs about 11 pounds, or 5 kilograms, so I use it to hold things down, or as an
anvil.
Otherwise it just looks cool sitting here on my workbench.
This workbench was one of the first things I built in this shop, and at some point I
added this cover to hide all the bike parts and extra tool boxes below it.
Otherwise this bench has served me well in its current state.
I hope to see the day where the top is uniformly grody from end to end, but for now it’s
a work in progress.
My original additions like the hex wrenches drilled into the front, have worked out well,
and I’m not sure I would have built this any differently.
As for the tool wall… well it’s worked out okay, but I won’t be using pegboard
in my next shop.
It looks great from the start and makes it easy to organize your tools, but the little
holes deteriorate over time and should you choose to actually screw anything into it
there’s not much material to get purchase on.
Recently I dedicated the left side of the tool wall for my YouTube plaques and sponsors.
Underneath it, I have all my tool chargers ready to go so I can always have fresh batteries
in the hopper.
But that’s not the only charging station in the hack shack.
Here, I can easily charge all my camera batteries.
Or just plug the camera right in.
It’s all powered by a big USB brick mounted under the desk.
To the right in this tool bag, I keep action camera straps and mounts for quick access.
Moving to the left is this storage area which I’ve covered with a curtain, and my secondary
bike rack complete with a guest spot.
Today, I modified one of the hooks to accommodate a fat tire bike by straightening it out and
making it protrude further from the wall.
You may be skeptical about whether this is secure enough to hold a fat bike, but try
getting it off and you’ll quickly see that it’s more than adequate.
As we’ve embarked on more projects, the hack shack has accumulated some new tools.
This heat gun sees a lot of use, and so does this cordless hot glue gun which I bought
recently.
It gets really hot so the glue ends up being much stronger than other got glue I’ve used.
Surprisingly I also use these scissors constantly for opening packages, cutting zip ties, and
even brake hose.
The little parrot beak shape lends itself well to just about everything.
Something else I use all the time?
This retractable extension cord.
I will never have a workspace without one for as long as I live.
Since the beginning of the channel I’ve acquired an insane amount of stickers, and
I’ve more or less contained them to the surface this storage cabinet.
This is the official sticker repository, and if you accumulate as many stickers as I do,
you know how nice it is to have a default home for them.
Inside the sticker repository are action cameras, water bottles, gloves, and stuff.
Moving to the left is a masterpiece, my garage door designed by Sketchy Trails.
I originally found out about Kristina through Brian, who commissioned her to paint this
for me.
Some of you might recognize this scene.
Since then I’ve hired her to make a variety of things for the channel including the YouTube
artwork, the Berm Creek Shirt, the refresh of my logo, and of course this garage door
which is composed of individual panels.
It was tricky to get this all to line up perfectly, but we actually got it on our first shot.
As for this bike rack, I was a little iffy about it holding up to the abuse of loading
and unloading bikes, but to this day it’s going strong.
I was also cautiously optimistic about the floor.
This foam floor makes standing around for hours on end, much more comfortable.
It also helps with sound deadening.
Through a year and a half of abuse this floor has held up well physically.
But cosmetically, not so much.
It’s stained with everything from sealant to construction adhesive.
I could probably clean it up, but not without a toothbrush and a three day weekend.
Oddly enough, the spot that looks the best is where I spilled a bunch of brake oil a
few months ago.
Were I to build another shop I would still consider using it again, but maybe throw down
a drop cloth to protect it when working with nasty substances.
So that’s a full tour and update on the hack shack.
If you want to watch the original build video I’ve included it on the end screen.
Also in the description are links to some of the things in my shop, right down to that
huge charging brick.
If you have any cool additions or features in your own shop I want to hear about them
below.
I think there may come a day where I’ll need to start over, and convert an entirely
new space into the set of Seth’s Bike Hacks.
Thanks for riding with me today, and I’ll see you next time.